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A Cleab Soup

A clear soup made from beef and veal bones, vegetables, and a gelatinous fat base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the beef and veal into pieces.

  2. Boil them in 10 quarts of water all day, skimming frequently.

  3. Add the white peppercorns, mace, and bay leaves.

  4. Keep the pot covered to maintain water level, aiming for about 5 quarts of soup.

  5. Strain the soup into a stone jar and let it cool overnight.

  6. Remove the fat the next day; you will have a strong jelly.

Make the vegetable infusion

  1. Cover the chopped carrots, turnips, and onions with hot water.

  2. Steep the vegetables for 2 hours.

  3. Strain the vegetable water into the soup pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the jelly.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Beat the eggs and stir them into the soup.

  4. Boil for an additional 10 minutes.

  5. Keep the soup hot but do not boil.

  6. Add 1 cup of cold water.

  7. Season with essence of celery or cloves as desired before serving.

  8. Strain the soup through a flannel bag to ensure smoothness.

  9. Reheat if necessary.

  10. Serve very hot, adding white wine to the tureen if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + vealtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Slowly simmered, it releases gelatin and flavour into the stock, forming the jelly.
Veal shin
Its collagen adds body and gelatin, helping the stock set into a firm jelly.
Eggs
Their proteins coagulate as they cook, trapping particles to clarify the soup.
Carrots
Steeped in hot water, they add sweetness and gentle vegetable flavour to the broth.
Onions
Steeped in hot water, they contribute savoury depth and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs into the soup. Egg whites must be stirred in gently and the soup kept just below boiling so the proteins coagulate and collect impurities, clarifying the broth rather than leaving it cloudy.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, carrot, turnip, onion, white wine, egg):

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Celerybetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, turnip, onion, white wine, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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